A: Whether you're a student, professional or academic staff, when you undertake work affiliated with UOW you need to comply with copyright laws. Refer to this website and UOW's Copyright Policy for more information.

A: Fair Use refers to the limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Unlike many other countries, such as the USA, Australia doesn’t have a broad-based Fair Use exception, and therefore you cannot copy material using Fair Use as a defence. Instead, Australia has a number of narrowly-defined Fair Dealing exceptions that allow you to do limited, legal copying. The most common exception used at UOW is the Fair Dealing exception for research and study, which gives similar copying rights to Fair Use, but restricts the ways you can use your copied material. More information: Copyright for Study and Research.

3: I am an international student. Do I need to conform to Australian copyright law in my studies?

A: As an international student, you must conform to the copyright law of the country in which you're studying. If you're doing study or research in Australia, then you must follow the copyright law of Australia. If you are studying in another country, any copying of materials relies on the laws of that country. Overseas students can view the copyright laws of other countries at UNESCO Collection of National Copyright Laws.

A: This will depend on a number of things. In a lot of cases you can rely on the Fair Dealing exception for research and study, which allows you to copy a reasonable amount of someone else’s material without asking permission. If, however, you wish to use more than a reasonable amount (and this is not always defined specifically) you'll need to get the copyright owner’s permission. Some websites include terms of use and/or copyright information that set out what permissions you're automatically granted. You should keep a copy of this information for reference. More information: Seeking Permission to Copy.

5: Can I rely on a Fair Dealing exception if my thesis is published externally (for example, as a book, or on an external website)?

A: Thesis authors often include third party copyright material within their work. For commercial publication of a thesis, you cannot rely on Fair Dealing; you need to seek permission to reuse any third party copyright material that you included in your thesis. (See Copyright and your thesis).

6: Can I copy any material I want if it’s being used only for educational purposes?

A: No, some material cannot be copied without permission of the copyright owner, even for educational purposes. See the Copyright for Teaching guide for more information, or contact the Copyright Officer to receive advice on whether a specific item can be copied.

A: Yes, as long as you're certain that the video in the Youtube clip is a ‘legal’ copy – for example, it's been uploaded by the copyright owner, or by someone who has permission to upload it, or if the copyright period for the original movie has expired (look up 'duration' in the Keywords field).

Make sure you're playing the video for educational purposes related to the course, and that only staff and students involved in that course are present.

Yes. Under the University’s licence with Screenrights (mandated by Part VA of the Copyright Act), you're allowed to record television broadcasts (including free-to-air, cable, and satellite) and radio broadcasts, for educational purposes. The licence offers the advantage of allowing extra copies to be made.

To comply with the licence, the video needs to be labelled with the following , whether on the item (eg DVD), on the cover, or inserted into the start of the video file:

Copied for the University of Wollongong, under Part VA of the Copyright Act 1968.

This program was transmitted on [date, time & channel].

This copy was made on [insert date].

Make sure you're playing the video for educational purposes related to the current course, and that only staff and students involved in that course are present.

Screenrights offers a service called EnhanceTV, which uses the Part VA licence to sell videos of television programs. Many educational programs are available through EnhanceTV for a reasonable price.